Business Notes Banking

To the weekend cleaning woman at the Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago, the clear plastic bags on the floor of the computer room looked to be full of trash. She thereupon heaved them into a bin that was taken to a garbage- compaction area. But the following Monday, Continental's data processors discovered they were short $227 million in checks that the bank had honored but not yet entered in its computers. A crew of janitors then began searching the immediate area, to no avail. Finally, after an anxious hunt, they located the documents in the compaction room amid bundles of wastepaper mingled with noxious cigarette butts and cardboard coffee cups. If the checks had not been found, Continental would have faced the laborious job of straightening out a $227 million imbalance in its books. Last week, however, when the Aug. 17 mishap came to light, bank officials maintained virtuously that such an outcome was impossible. Even though the bank's books are balanced daily, they said, paper trash is kept on hand for several days -- just in case something important gets thrown out by mistake. Declared Eugene Croisant, a Continental executive vice president: "We provide for all contingencies." Even, apparently, for cleaning women.